


Sobriquet

by stupidityisdangerous



Category: IT (1990), IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Headcanon, Implied/Referenced Sex, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 14:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16914540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidityisdangerous/pseuds/stupidityisdangerous
Summary: The Losers Club of 1989, and the nicknames that they're given (mostly by Richie).





	Sobriquet

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on [my Tumblr](http://shady-sink.tumblr.com/) .

Bill

  * His full name is William, but literally, no one calls him that, and if they do, he doesn’t even realize they’re talking to him.
  * When they first meet in kindergarten, Richie thought that Bill is older than him because he’s more mature and calls him “Big Bill.” The nickname sticks, and by high school, all the Losers call him that.
  * Richie doesn’t quite understand how you can get the nickname “Bill” from “William.” Even though all of the Losers have tried time and time again to explain it to him, he still insists it makes no sense. And so he comes up with “Billiam,” claiming that it’s Bill’s real full name. It sounds totally ridiculous and stupid, but Bill allows it. In his opinion, it sounds more like his name than “William.”
  * “Big Billiam” however is another story. “Billiam” in itself has gotten old at this point, and Bill would prefer it if Richie would shut the fuck up now, please.
  * Audra will call him “love” casually. When she’s asking him what he wants for dinner, reminding him to pick up milk on the way home, telling him to pick up their kids from school. And Bill loves it. Nobody ever told him they loved him growing up, aside from Georgie and the Losers occasionally, and he loves hearing her say it so casually because she always states it like a fact as simple as if she was stating that the sky is blue.



Beverly

  * Her parents call her “Bevvie,” but as the years go on and her relationship with her father becomes more and more toxic, she doesn’t like it anymore.
  * So instead, she asks the Losers to call her “Bev.”
  * In high school, she and Richie are friends with benefits for a while, and he starts calling her “sugartits.” He stops calling her that after he starts dating Eddie, but every once in a while he will say it again and she’ll laugh or roll her eyes.
  * Once, Richie tries to call her “Orangina” after the drink—but pronounced wrong so it sounded like “vagina”—she hates this and after that, he never calls her it again.
  * When she’s mad, Richie will call her “Roxy Red” and she’ll just glare at him.
  * In her freshman year of high school, she has a growth spurt and by her senior year, she’s five-foot-ten and taller than Eddie and Ben, and the same height as Mike and Stan. Richie has the magnificent idea to start calling her “gingeraffe”—a combination of “ginger” and “giraffe.” She hates it, and after Roxy Red comes out, he doesn’t call her that again—or at least not for a while.
  * Ben is a softy, it’s evident to anyone around him and especially evident to Beverly. He calls her “sweetheart,” “honey,” “love,” “darling,” “babe,” anything that’ll express to her how much he adores her. And Beverly has always been hesitant about affection, but when they’re at home and Ben calls her by a pet name, she can’t help but blush.



Richie

  * His full name is Richard, but nobody calls him that unless they’re mad at him. When Eddie’s especially annoyed, he’ll call him Richard in a sassy voice with his hands on his hips, and Richie will have to try really hard not to smile at how adorable he is.
  * He gives himself the nickname “Trashmouth,” but nobody calls him that unless he’s being especially annoying or he’s being introduced on a talk show.
  * Wentworth and Maggie have always wanted a daughter, and when Richie’s eleven their wish finally comes true. Julianna Tozier is more than a decade younger than her older brother, but she looks up to him in a way no one else does, and she calls him her “bubba” and follows him around the house whenever he’s home. Richie loves the attention, and the name makes him smile. Years later, when he and Eddie are adopting their first kids, the kids call Richie "bubba" too.
  * Bev and Eddie call him “Rich” sometimes, but it has to be in a certain situation for it to happen.
  * Richie will sometimes make Bev laugh so hard that she’ll be leaned over clutching her stomach because it hurts from clenching so much as her breath catches, and she’ll just yell “Rich!” She’ll also yell his name like that if he makes a joke especially outrageous that’s beyond “beep, beep, Richie.” (Like when he makes any mention of Beverly and Ben’s sex life.)
  * Or he’ll be pressing kisses along Eddie’s neck, teasing him and telling him how beautiful he is, and his teeth will scrape against his skin and Eddie will just gasp “Rich” in this breathy little plea that drives Richie wild.
  * Sometimes Eddie thinks it’s weird that Richie has so many nicknames for him and he has almost none for Richie. And he tells him this. “You could call me ‘Chee,’” Richie suggests. “That’s cute. It’s like ‘Eds’ but for me.” Eddie wrinkles his nose. “That sounds fucking stupid. Don’t ever suggest that again.” Richie just laughs.
  * Richie has the bluest eyes of anyone Eddie has ever met. Even Beverly’s gray-green eyes look dull next to his, and Eddie adores the color. So sometimes it just feels natural to call him “Blue,” especially in their early forties after watching—and sobbing over—Love, Simon together.



Ben

  * His full name is Benjamin and his mom only calls him that when they’re arguing. Especially in the beginning of his weight loss, when his mom’s worried he’s not eating enough, he gets called Benjamin a lot. He always feels ashamed when he hears it like she’s disappointed in him. They rarely fight.
  * His mom and he don’t see each other often. When she had him at sixteen his dad had already left the picture, and she works a lot to support him alone. She usually comes home late at night, exhausted, and makes him dinner anyway, taking a lot of pride in feeding him. She worries that he’s not taking care of himself or he’s having trouble with his friends. She gives him girl advice on Beverly. And whenever she calls him “Benny” he can’t help but smile because it makes him feel so loved.
  * “Benny Boy” though, makes him feel bad for reasons he can’t quite remember, and not even Richie calls him it.
  * Wentworth Tozier is an avid pro-wrestling fan, and he always lets Richie watch with him. And in early 1989 when Haystacks Calhoun dies, Richie is well aware of the wrestling icon after Went’s talks about him at dinner. When Richie meets Ben a few months later, he can’t help but be reminded of Haystacks when he sees Ben. Ben is nowhere as big as Haystacks was—that’s obvious, as Haystacks died weighing a whopping 601 pounds—but he’s just as tough as him, even if he doesn’t show it. And so Richie tells him this, and Ben likes it just fine. He doesn’t get called tough often, and he likes having someone think that of him. So “Haystack” sticks and the Losers use it often when he needs to hear it.
  * When he’s older and dating Beverly, she’ll massage his shoulders when he’s sore from the gym or hunched over sketching blueprints all day, and she’ll call him “baby.” It makes him feel the same way “Benny” does.



Mike

  * His full name is Michael, but everyone calls him Mike. Even when he’s in trouble, his grandfather, uncle, and parents still called him “Mike.” And Mike likes that just fine. Michael sounds unfamiliar and foreign on his tongue, it weirds him out slightly when he’s called it. Even Richie usually sticks to Mike.
  * That is, until high school. He’s not sure how or why it happens, but sometime after eighth grade, all the Losers start calling him “Mikey” interchangeably. One day, he and Stan are smoking outside and he asks him why. Stan just shrugs. “I don’t know. Stanley, Beverly, Eddie, Richie. Just sounds right.” Mike thinks about this. “You don’t call Ben ‘Benny’ or Bill ‘Billy.’” Stan takes another drag. “Ben just suits him better. And everyone I know named Billy is an asshole.” That’s good enough for Mike. He likes “Mikey” alright, but only when the Losers call him it.



Stanley

  * Before the Losers, Stanley always wanted to be called “Stan,” even though he would never admit it. So when they picked up the nickname, for once, he didn’t complain.
  * Richie annoys the shit out of him sometimes, but Stanley really likes being called “Stan the Man.” It makes him feel really masculine and confident, and he rolls his eyes sometimes when he hears it simply because Richie himself is so ridiculous, but he secretly loves it.
  * Once all the Losers are at the beach and Richie makes the mistake of walking past Stan, wolf whistles, and calls him “Manly Stanley.” Neither Stan nor Eddie nor Patty care for that shit in the slightest, and The Incident earns Richie quite a few frustrated “Rich!” from Roxy Red. 
  * When he’s married to Patty and they’re living in Atlanta together, sometimes his memories of It will come back, and she’ll find him upset and sobbing. Sometimes, when it’s really bad, he’ll hurt himself and Patty will clean his wounds and sing to him softly. He can never look at her then, he’s too ashamed, but she’ll turn his head towards her and tell him, “it’s alright, chaviv, it’s going to be alright.” (Hebrew for “dearly loved.”)
  * When he looks nice or he’s feeling self-conscious about his appearance, Patty will tell him “you’re so handsome, darling,” and he loves the way “darling” sounds when she says it because her Brooklyn accent is so thick. So from then on she always calls him it.



Eddie

  * His full name is Edwin, but he hates it more than anything because of the way his mother will say it when she’s scolding him, so he tells everyone his full name is Edward, and nobody knows his real full name except Richie—who never calls him it, no matter what.
  * When they first meet in kindergarten, Richie can’t remember Eddie’s name. Was it Ed? Edward? Eduardo? He can’t remember, so he starts calling Eddie “Eds.” And he keeps calling him “Eds,” even long after he knows his real name. Richie loves “Eds”—not just the name, the person too, but that’s a story for another day—it makes him feel special having a special nickname for Eddie. And unlike “Eddie Spaghetti,” Eddie actually likes being called “Eds,” even though he’d never admit it. 
  * They’re in second grade when Richie comes up with “Eddie Spaghetti”—by a brilliant game of word association—and Richie likes it because it rhymes. He likes it, even more, when it annoys Eddie because then Eddie pays more attention to him. Eddie hates being called “Eddie Spaghetti” and Richie only calls him it when he wants a rise out of him.
  * They’re in sixth grade when Richie learns Eddie’s full name. They’re walking home together, and Eddie has his report card in his hand, and Richie—being the obnoxious little asshole he is—snatches it out of his hand and holds it out of his reach. Despite Eddie’s protests, he opens it and begins reading it aloud dramatically, and Eddie slams his hand over Richie’s braces filled mouth when he starts to read his full name. “Richie!” Eddie hisses, annoyed, embarrassed, and upset. “Don’t call me that!” Richie just grins. “Why, Edwin?” He asks tauntingly. To Richie’s surprise, Eddie doesn’t yell at him, instead, he just looks upset. “Please, Richie,” he pleads. “Just don’t call me that.” And so the next day at school, Richie comes over the lunch table they share with Stan and Bill, grinning like an idiot. “Hey, Edward Spaghetward!” He greets Eddie, pinching his cheeks. And Eddie hates “Eddie Spaghetti” but for some reason “Edward Spaghetward” isn’t quite as bad.
  * Richie starts taking Spanish in sixth grade. And although he’s a terrible student in the classroom and his attention problems are obvious to everyone around him, he rather likes learning new languages. He takes Spanish all the way up through high school, and by graduation, he’s completely fluid. It’s not until their freshman year of college though, when Richie and Eddie are living together in Los Angeles and finally together for the first time in their lives, that Richie calls Eddie “amorcito.” They’re on the couch, making out shamelessly because Beverly—their roommate—is out and they have the apartment all to themselves. Eddie crawls off his spot on the couch and into Richie’s lap, straddling them, and Richie sighs at the friction, moaning the word softly. Eddie raises his eyebrows. “What does that mean?” He asks, and Richie’s cheeks burn in embarrassment; he’s been calling Eddie the nickname in his head for years, but unlike the others, he’s never said it out loud before. “My little love,” he says quietly. “I’m not little,” Eddie crosses his arms sassily, and Richie grins. “Of course not, Eds,” he grins, “not where it matters.” They make love right there and then, and the next morning when Eddie leaves for class and Richie for his internship at the local radio station, Richie kisses Eddie goodbye, telling him quietly, “Adios, amorcito.” Beverly hears nearby, and raises her eyebrows, but says nothing. She took Spanish with Richie in high school, and she knows damn well what that means.
  * “Hotpants” is the most playful of Richie’s nicknames for Eddie. It’s not playful in the way “Eddie Spaghetti” or “Edward Spaghetward” is, it’s playful in the way that makes Eddie hot and bothered no matter where they are or what they’re doing. Richie uses it for the first time in college, walking past Eddie in the kitchen after a wonderful night spent together, and he cups Eddie’s ass lightly through the teasingly short shorts he’s wearing. “Hey, hotpants.” Eddie is late to class that morning.
  * Eddie’s college graduation was a long time coming. He leaves home at eighteen, completely unsure of what he wants to do but knowing that he wants to do it with Richie. They all move into a Los Angeles apartment together, a tiny two-bedroom is a neighborhood that’s always ringing with police sirens, and Beverly, Richie, and Eddie share the cluttered space. Beverly is attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing and Richie is pursuing his childhood dream of being a professional comedian—ventriliquisim wasn’t as easy to do professionally. Eddie filled a few college applications out at home, but they were all close to his mom and heavily influenced by what she wanted for him, so even though with his grades he was accepted into all of them, he doesn’t go. A year or so down the line, he takes an interest in psychology. He wants desperately to understand why he feels the way he does. He doesn’t know why he cries sometimes when Richie kisses him, why he sometimes snaps at his friends for no reason, why he feels sick no matter how psychically clean he is. So he starts reading some psychology books he gets at the library, just for fun, and one night he’s explaining the concept of Munchausen syndrome by proxy when Richie tells him he should go to school for psychology. Eddie has never thought of it before, he doubts he could be a good psychologist or therapist or counselor of any sort, but with the other Losers’ help, he starts looking at career paths and decides he would like to be a nurse at a psych ward or mental hospital. He wants to help people, and taking care of them when no one else can sounds perfect for him. Four years later, when he graduates from David Geffen School of Medicine with a bachelor degree in psychiatric nursing, Richie picks him up, grinning, and kisses him, exclaiming “you’re a Spaghetti Man now!” He never calls him Eddie Spaghetti again.



**Author's Note:**

> The title of this headcanon is just another word for "nickname." You really do learn something every day.


End file.
